Chapter 95 The fake prince ascends the throne as emperor!
In the emperor's mind, the title of Duke of England would not be passed on to the next generation, so he felt that he could write blank checks at will and give the promise of inheriting the title without demotion.
This made other nobles in the court very envious.
These noble families with titles will have their titles passed down from generation to generation lower and lower, and sooner or later they will become commoners. If the children in the family are not motivated, they may even fall from being nobles to becoming common people in the future.
The emperor was not a very generous person. For meritorious nobles, he would rather reward the meritorious official's sons who were not qualified to inherit the title with a non-inheritable title than allow the meritorious official to inherit the title without being downgraded.
It can be seen how enviable this grace specially given by the emperor is, and it also deepened the impression of civil and military officials that "the emperor favors the Duke of England very much."
Little did people know that the emperor was so generous because he thought the Duke of Ying was about to die and the title would not be passed on to the next generation.
Si Yuan was the one who knew the emperor's dark thoughts best, but he cooperated with the emperor's acting very well, and acted as if he would do anything to gain his majesty's favor. He and the emperor on the dragon throne looked like a model of a wise monarch and a good minister who got along well with each other.
Outsiders don't know that this pair is a model of a wise monarch and good minister who get along well with each other. The 'wise monarch' plans to kill the 'good minister's' entire family, while the 'good minister' is thinking about how to kill the monarch and support the new emperor. Each of them is better at superficial work than the other. It's a peak showdown of acting skills between the best actor.
However, comparing the two's acting skills, Si Yuan's is better and can be said to be flawless.
The emperor's acting skills were a little worse, but his identity and position prevented the civil and military officials from closely observing his expressions. No matter how good they were at reading people's expressions, it was useless. So even if there were slight flaws in the emperor's acting skills, no one could see them. They could only judge the emperor's intentions through the orders he issued and the attitude he showed.
In the eyes of everyone, the emperor's attitude towards the crown prince and the Duke of England is trust, respect, and favor. He rewards them with all kinds of good things and openly praises them to express his love and respect for them. Therefore, anyone who sees it thinks that the emperor truly values the crown prince and the Duke of England.
Even the emperor's biological mother, Empress Dowager Chen, felt that the emperor sincerely wanted the crown prince to succeed to the throne.
How could Empress Dowager Chen be willing to accept this? She also expected her niece to inherit her position as empress dowager, and her eldest grandson born to her would inherit the throne as emperor.
It would be best if the positions of empress and empress dowager became hereditary positions of the daughters of the Chen family, and the position of emperor became hereditary positions of the princes born to the daughters of the Chen family.
This is the result of human greed. Empress Dowager Chen has become the ultimate winner of the palace fight, and her family has benefited a lot from it, but she is still not satisfied.
The emperor was concerned about Empress Dowager Chen and was unwilling to fight the Chen family himself, so he supported the fake prince Zhou Xi and fought a life-and-death battle with the eldest prince supported by the Chen family.
"Father, the emperor is so stupid. It was clearly him who signaled me to expose the Chen family's crime of selling official positions and titles, but the empress dowager just cried a few words in front of him, and he raised her high and put her down easily. Are the grievances of so many victims not worth mentioning?" Zhou Xi's suppressed anger could no longer be suppressed after he came in front of Si Yuan of the Duke of Yingguo's mansion.
Si Yuan looked at the indignant Zhou Xi and said calmly, "The knife didn't cut him, how could he feel pain? Even if they wanted to deal with the Chen family, it was only because the Chen family's attitude of supporting the eldest prince to covet his throne was too obvious, and our Majesty couldn't stand it."
The emperor, a power monster, would instinctively fear anything that threatens his imperial power, including, of course, his own son.
In the original plot, the emperor seemed to be extremely fond of Zhou Jing, the son born to his true love Li Zhaoyi, and made various plans for him. He even offered the position of crown prince with both hands and paved the way for Zhou Jing to become the crown prince.
However, the original plot ended with Zhou Jing regaining his status as the crown prince, and the fake crown prince and the Duke of Yingzhou were all executed. There was no mention of the outcome after Zhou Jing ascended to the throne of crown prince.
Those who truly respect the fake prince may not necessarily truly respect Zhou Jing, the real prince. Those subordinates who are loyal to the fake prince must be secretly dissatisfied with Zhou Jing, the new master, because some of them miss their old master. Zhou Jing will probably also be annoyed by these subordinates who were once the fake prince's confidants. With the estrangement between the master and the subordinates, Zhou Jing's position as the prince may not be stable.
If Zhou Jing's position as crown prince is secured, but the emperor is in his prime, would he really have no idea what to do when faced with a young, powerful and influential crown prince? Even though this prince is his most beloved son born to him by true love, he is the crown prince and his power will erode his imperial power. He didn't care about the fake prince's huge power in the past because he had the fake prince's background as an evidence and could cut off the fake prince's support and bring him to ruin at any time, but Zhou Jing is the real prince.
The power struggle between the emperor and the crown prince is inevitable.
As for the idea that the emperor would voluntarily abdicate and hand over power to Zhou Jing for a peaceful transition - Si Yuan didn't believe it.
It is true that Zhou Jing is the emperor's favorite son, but the emperor's love for Zhou Jing all comes from Zhou Jing's biological mother, Li Zhaoyi, because love for the emperor extends to his dog.
But in Si Yuan's opinion, the emperor loves himself the most, and Li Zhaoyi, his true love, has to give way.
If the emperor did not love himself the most, he would not have been so stubborn as to favor those concubines with powerful family backgrounds for the sake of his imperial power, and would not have wronged Li Zhaoyi, his true love.
Wasn’t it because she offended the favorite concubine that Li Zhaoyi was banished to the cold palace? How did the favorite concubine make the emperor banish his true love to the cold palace? Of course it was not the emperor’s favor, but his own family background.
The emperor had so many concerns for the sake of his own imperial power, which was why he constantly wronged Li Zhaoyi and asked her to endure the wronged things. Because nothing is more important than his imperial power.
Back then, the emperor could choose imperial power between his true love for Li Zhaoyi and his own imperial power. Will the emperor give up his imperial power for Li Zhaoyi's son now? Just think about it and you will know it is impossible.
So according to Si Yuan's estimation, if the emperor had lived a little longer after the original plot ended, the fate of Prince Zhou Jing would probably not be much better.
The emperor couldn't tolerate even his own son coveting his imperial power, let alone the Chen family, his in-laws.
Si Yuan said to Zhou Xi: "If you want to deal with the Chen family, it doesn't matter how many crimes the Chen family has committed. The emperor doesn't care about how the Chen family has committed crimes. He only cares about his own imperial power. So you just need to let the emperor know that the Chen family has begun to be dissatisfied with him and intends to support a new emperor who is closer to the Chen family. The emperor will naturally take action against the Chen family."
Why does the emperor dislike the eldest prince? It's because he feels that the eldest prince is just a tool used by the Chen family to covet his throne. If there is no eldest prince, his mother's family will definitely not be jumping up and down to support the new emperor. After all, he, the emperor with Chen family blood, is the Chen family's greatest support.
It's just that the emperor had this idea before, but because Empress Dowager Chen had been suppressing this idea, Si Yuan's idea to Zhou Xi was to let Zhou Xi amplify this idea to the emperor.
Doesn’t the emperor like to sit on the mountain and watch tigers fight? Si Yuan insisted on dragging the emperor into the fight and letting the emperor personally eliminate Zhou Xi's competitors.
After all, Si Yuan didn't want the child he raised in this life to bear the bad reputation of being ruthless to his brothers.
So please, Emperor, bear the bad reputation of being ruthless to your son.
Zhou Xi was also a smart man with a high level of political literacy. He understood the deep meaning of Si Yuan's words almost instantly. He nodded in surprise and said, "I understand, father. I will let you know how my eldest brother was used and deceived by the Chen family."
Si Yuan and Zhou Xi smiled at each other.
Si Yuan was very pleased. It was a comfort to raise a smart child. He didn't have to explain things too clearly, because the child understood everything.
It was worth his trouble to arrange an artificial rebirth experience of "a dream of a hundred years" for Zhou Xi.
Compared to Zhou Xi's seemingly innate political talent, the left-behind Zhou Jing is much worse. It can be said that he has almost no political literacy. He has a lot of clever tricks, but he doesn't use them in the right place.
Comparing the two children, Si Yuan even felt that Zhou Jing, who was carefully trained by the original owner to be both civil and military, might not be able to surpass the fake prince in political literacy.
After all, the fake prince grew up in the struggle for the throne, while Zhou Jing in the original plot grew up in a smooth and carefree life and had never experienced any political struggles. Maybe he was just a silly white wolf who was good at both civil and military affairs.
Si Yuan's thoughts drifted a little, but he quickly pulled them back together, no longer wasting energy thinking about the original plot that was completely different from the current situation. He looked at Zhou Xi, whose emotions had calmed down, and asked, "Xi'er, the emperor probably won't give you a crown princess for the time being, but you're not young anymore, so it's time to consider what kind of wife you'll marry in the future."
Zhou Xi had never formally married in his 'previous life', but he was not shy about the topic of marrying like other young people. Instead, he was very calm, as if he was talking about someone else's business: "I can only be a qualified queen."
Zhou Xi never concealed anything in front of Si Yuan, and now he bluntly said that he hoped his future wife could be a qualified queen, showing his desire for that position without any concealment.
Si Yuan nodded slightly and said, "Then I will keep an eye on it for you. But I think the day when you marry the queen is not far away."
Si Yuan doesn't think that the emperor will expose Zhou Xi's fake prince identity at the same time in the original plot, and that the emperor will expose it at that time in reality.
Of course, he had to make preparations in advance and be ready to send the emperor to his death at any time.
Anyway, when the emperor passed away, no one would suspect the emperor's favorite prince and the most trusted Duke of England. After all, in the eyes of outsiders, it would be the greatest benefit to them if the emperor was alive.
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